Search a Phone Number

Search By Keywords

Free Trial Offer or a Free Run on Your Bank Account? Scam Exposed!

Article by SCF. Filed Under: Trial Offer Scam

Free Trial Offers are widely adopted marketing gimmicks by companies who push unproven & often substandard products, with tall claims. The companies know that their product will not find sales in the market place, on the strength of it! Hence the best way would be to run scam ads across the internet and also spread the deceptive content on social media tools like Facebook, by nefarious methods.

Consumers get hooked by the fancy ads which offer solution to their nagging worries about weight gain, wrinkles, hair loss, fitness etc with an enticing proposal of a fortnight’s free supply of the product. “You need to pay just $4.95 for shipping!” The ads exclaim!

The user unwittingly signs up and punches in card number and proceeds to pay shipping charge. Unknown to the consumer, the scam website has already saved the card data and signed up the consumer for monthly subscription of its deadly chemical concoction!

Deep within the pages of the website, in a most obscure place, the company says, a consumer who orders a free trial has agreed for monthly subscription unless the order is canceled and the trial bottle returned, WITHIN 14 days.

99% percent of the consumers who fall for the Trial Offer Scams are unaware of the above anti-consumer clause. They are not alerted during ordering process that they are also being signed in, for a subscription.

Its also reported that there are extremely mean scammers too, who charge for the 14 day free trial pack, IF its not returned before 14 days! (This is in addition to the scam subscription payment!)

Consumers are in for a terrible shock when the card company / bank alerts about $150 debit after 14 days. They scamper and try to reason with the scam company who flatly refuses any refund or cancellation. Consumer is left with no other way but to cancel his card or bank account which would be an extremely complicated task for most people, since the card / account would have been tied to many other legitimate payments.

Meanwhile, the scammer has already billed the consumer few times and he has done it to thousands of people, raking in million dollar sales.

You will observe that most of these products disappear after the promotion phase. Once the news spreads, there will be hardly any takers and the scammer pulls the product out and repackages the same and is back in the market with a NEW NAME and new one liners, ready to run the scam again!

Free Trial Offers are widely adopted marketing gimmicks by companies who push unproven & often substandard products, with tall claims. The companies know that their product will not find sales in the market place, on the strength of it! Hence the best way would be to run scam ads across the internet and also spread the deceptive content on social media tools like Facebook, by nefarious methods.

Consumers get hooked by the fancy ads which offer solution to their nagging worries about weight gain, wrinkles, hair loss, fitness etc with an enticing proposal of a fortnight’s free supply of the product. “You need to pay just $4.95 for shipping!” The ads exclaim!

The user unwittingly signs up and punches in card number and proceeds to pay shipping charge. Unknown to the consumer, the scam website has already saved the card data and signed up the consumer for monthly subscription of its deadly chemical concoction!

Deep within the pages of the website, in a most obscure place, the company says, a consumer who orders a free trial has agreed for monthly subscription unless the order is canceled and the trial bottle returned, WITHIN 14 days.

99% percent of the consumers who fall for the Trial Offer Scams are unaware of the above anti-consumer clause. They are not alerted during ordering process that they are also being signed in, for a subscription.

Its also reported that there are extremely mean scammers too, who charge for the 14 day free trial pack, IF its not returned before 14 days! (This is in addition to the scam subscription payment!)

Consumers are in for a terrible shock when the card company / bank alerts about $150 debit after 14 days. They scamper and try to reason with the scam company who flatly refuses any refund or cancellation. Consumer is left with no other way but to cancel his card or bank account which would be an extremely complicated task for most people, since the card / account would have been tied to many other legitimate payments.

Meanwhile, the scammer has already billed the consumer few times and he has done it to thousands of people, raking in million dollar sales.

You will observe that most of these products disappear after the promotion phase. Once the news spreads, there will be hardly any takers and the scammer pulls the product out and repackages the same and is back in the market with a NEW NAME and new one liners, ready to run the scam again!

The Free Trial Offers are a perpetual money making machine for the scammers. Repackage and resell (we mean re-scam!)

Steps to Protect Yourself From Free Trial Offer Scammers

Sign up for Free Trial Offers only if you are okay, to be charged every month!

If you DO NOT want to get charged every month, use a VIRTUAL CARD (which is valid for only one transaction). Most banks are now providing virtual card to regular card users. And these can be activated online.

Don’t fall for the recommendation by “celebrities” like Dr.Oz who are paid by the scammers

Don’t go by “Friend’s” recommendation on Facebook or other social media

Do remember that the therapeutic claims are untested by FDA or any Govt. agency

Most of these products could be harmful to health and may contain banned substances or substances in excess of minimum prescribed limit for human consumption.

Though you may be lead to believe that the product is manufactured in the US, it could actually be coming from the third world.